Employee Empowerment Blog #2

Throughout my research, I was able to learn a lot regarding leadership styles, but also about research as a whole. Dr. Paul and I met throughout the summer to create a timeline for this research. We began with identifying exactly what our research was going to regard. We analyzed different concepts in a quantitative level ensuring that our penultimate conclusion could be measurable. I spent time throughout the summer doing literary research, reading articles about leadership, management, incentivization and the different types of employee empowerment techniques that employers can implement. I began by reading Creating Magic by Lee Cockerel to get insight from an employers level on how to lead from the ground up. However, I realized the importance of identifying and highlighting the aforementioned concepts as thoroughly as I could.

Dr. Paul and I looked through numerous scholarly articles attempting to decipher just how many leadership styles have been created and how they are used. The three main forms of leadership are transactional, transformational and laissez-faire leadership. However, each of these have their own sub sections of leadership. We have compiled a list of leadership styles and components and plan to use these measurements in further research. We analyzed these styles through conceptualization and operationalization. It was surprising to learn just how many leadership styles there were and how they differ individually. Some leadership styles are nearly identical and differ slightly. Nevertheless, the implementation of a different leadership style, no matter how identical to the previous one, is monumental for employees. The experience at a workplace is changed when the leader or management changes because employees react to a certain types of leadership. After we identified the types of leadership, we created a timeline. Dr. Paul was gracious enough to work with my schedule in plotting out specific points to finish portions of research. I am currently studying for the LSAT and working around the city so a solid time management plan was certainly key to our success in this research. Together, we went over our goals for the project and identified the stages of the research that would need to be completed in order to create something significant and successful.

After reading Creating Magic, I learned about Cockerell’s format of leadership and how important it is to lead from the ground up. Cockerell ensured that he would greet everyone on a surface level as to familiarize himself with all of his employees no matter what level of the hierarchy they were on. Cockerell is explained the importance of transparency, communication and organizational strategy, which were concepts found in many of the leadership models. These findings have raised many questions while simultaneously providing a solid base for my research to sprout from.

In terms of challenges and successes, I feel pretty confident in terms of the track I am on for this research. Meeting with Dr. Paul has given me an opportunity to familiarize myself around the research process, which Dr. Paul is incredibly adept in. I look forward to seeing what I am able to conceive throughout the year with this research. A significant challenge for me was the need to specify exactly what this research would be about and how to be more detailed regarding a certain topic. I tend to be a generalist and want to attack multiple topics at once without the ability to hone in on a specific subject enough to truly analyze it. Dr. Paul has helped me find a formula to focus in on what exactly I am researching. I was also preliminarily concerned with how I wanted to approach the research. I would need to conduct primary research and use that data to measurably complete my research.

Overall, I am excited to utilize my findings and my literature review to continue my research during my senior year as a part of my senior Honors Thesis. I, along with Dr. Paul, am looking forward to finalize our findings in order to successfully present this research at conferences.